This question is posted to me by one of my old friend, so now there you go bro....the answer for the question that you asked...

A Brief Explanation:

A USB flash drive consists of a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (Universal Serial Bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk.

USB flash drives are often used for the same purposes as floppy disks were. They are smaller, faster, have thousands of times more capacity, and are more durable and reliable because of their lack of moving parts.

Until approximately 2005, most desktop and laptop computers were supplied with floppy disk drives, but most recent equipment has abandoned floppy disk drives in favor of USB ports.

The capacity of flash drives starts at few megabytes. In April 2010, the ones that could hold most data could hold about 256 gigabytes.

The Thumbdrive is now available in many Types, Sizes, Colors and Brands, some even been built in unique ways such in below:

Flash storage is one of the easiest, most transportable, solutions to data backup in the world. You can find flash storage in Computers, Cameras, Cell phones, Radios, Car Decks, Home DVD / BLUERAY Players, Televisions / LCD, , Ipods, Mmicro oven and even in some children’s toys. They do their job and they do it well; however, for exactly how long?

The lifespan of a USB drive seems rather unknown to the majority of users. Some think USB drives will fail long after they are replaced by a new drive, some say they will last as long as the hardware doesn’t break, but surprisingly USB flash drives last a lot longer than you might think.

A USB drive’s life expectancy can be measured by answering the following two questions:

1.How many times can you write to a USB flash drive before it fails?

2.How long will a USB flash drive retain its information?

To answer both these questions we must first realize that not all flash drives are created equal; that there are different quality levels to flash memory. Generally the higher the quality of flash memory, the longer it can be used before failing.

Answer #1 –Exactly how many times can you write to a USB flash drive before it fails?

A USB flash drive is measured in writes/erases. Every time you write something to the USB drive or erase something, it counts as a use. The average USB flash drive can usually last between 10,000 and 100,000 writes/erases. This means that if you were to write or erase 1 file a day, it would take you a little over 27 years to wear the drive out!

However, most drives will fail long before you can actually make a USB drive fail from maximizing its writes/erases.Environmental damage, manufacturing defects, or human error can prematurely end a flash drives life. As always it is recommended to that you take care of your flash memory as it can still break; leaving you without your valuable data.

Answer #2 – How long will a USB flash drive retain its information?

In a nutshell, no one is exactly sure how long a flash drive will retain its information due to simply they haven’t been on the market long enough to find out. Most experts would agree that around 10 years is about what you can expect to retain data on a flash drive without powering it up. That means you can lock away a USB drive for 10 years and return to still see your data.

After 10 years of not being powered on, the electrical charges determining if bit of information is either a ‘1’ or a ‘0’ gets hazy. This is because like all electrically charged devices, they suffer from what is called electro/magnetic deterioration.

So i guess you got your answer now....anyhow thanks for the question...

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